Are People Really Criticizing Hillary Clinton for Being “Overprepared”?

Now that it’s over, you can admit it: You tuned into last night’s presidential debate half expecting a reality TV battle royale in which Donald Trump verbally decimated Hillary Clinton with all the relish of a live Apprentice finale. Not sorry to disappoint the voyeurs, but Clinton is not Omarosa, and she wasn’t the one sniffling onstage. Instead, she was largely unruffled by Trump’s shouting and man-terrupting, bringing bemusement, preternatural chill, and a wealth of preparation on the issues. Where Trump prided himself on not discriminating against people of color at his Palm Beach club Mar-a-Lago, Clinton talked about racial bias and gun control. On the war in Iraq, Trump referenced an interview with Howard Stern. Clinton countered with: “When I was secretary of state . . . ” For whatever reason, though, Clinton’s coming correct was a bit of a problem for some.

During the debate, Trump called Clinton out for breaking from campaigning to debate-prep. Unwittingly, he set the stage for perhaps the major mic-drop moment of the debate. “I think Donald just criticized me for preparing for this debate. And yes, I did,” Clinton said. “And you know what else I prepared for? I prepared to be president. And I think that’s a good thing.”

It wasn’t a uniquely Trumpian criticism. The debate “exposed Trump’s lack of preparation,” Meet the Presstweeted mid-show, citing its host Chuck Todd. “But Clinton seemed overprepared at times.” And hours before the debate, MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts asked Clinton campaign press secretary Brian Fallon: “Was there a conscious effort not to overprepare your candidate to avoid looking stiff or robotic in this big moment?” Fallon didn’t bite. “I think she does a lot of preparation because she takes this platform seriously,” he said, “and she thinks she owes it to the voters to take it seriously.”

Preach, Mr. Fallon. First of all, overprepared is not a word, at least according to my online dictionary searches. Second, since when is knowing one’s stuff a mortal sin? Especially when it comes to a presidential debate, one of the main events leading up to the election of a new leader of the free world, is there such a thing as overpreparedness? This is not an effortless, “I woke up like this” kind of moment. And why, as Roberts suggested, must rigorous preparation equate to Clinton being cold and stiff? In the case of Clinton, the first woman major-party presidential nominee to step on the debate stage, turning preparation into some sort of burn also seemed to raise the old Tracy Flick trope: “Yuck, a woman so ambitious, she stayed up late studying the facts? Why couldn’t she roll up 10 minutes before and ace it, bro?” As @LOLGOP tweeted, "I'd guess that most of the women who've waited centuries for a female president appreciate that the first woman nominee prepared."

By morning, NBC was praising Clinton for her preparedness. “Clinton was mostly prepared, disciplined, and methodical in her attacks” while “Trump was mostly winging it,” the network wrote in its morning briefing. “In a battle of preparation versus instincts, preparation won in a major way.” In a poignant moment of über-preparation during the debate, shortly after Clinton referenced former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, whom she said Trump called Miss Piggy and Miss Housekeeping, the Clinton campaign released a new video featuring Machado. Aha moments rippled on Twitter: Clinton planned to drop Machado’s name, then swiftly release the video online to bolster the point! That’s the beauty of preparation.

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